Stress minimization for lattice structures. Part I: Micro-structure design

Lattice structures are periodic porous bodies which are becoming popular since they are a good compromise between rigidity and weight and can be built by additive manufacturing techniques. Their optimization has recently attracted some attention, based on the homogenization method, mostly for compliance minimization. The goal of our two-part work is to extend lattice optimization to stress minimization problems two-dimensionally. The present first part is devoted to the choice of a parametrized periodicity cell that will be used for structural optimization in the second part of our work. In order to avoid stress concentration, we propose a square cell microstructure with a super-ellipsoidal hole instead of the standard rectangular hole often used for compliance minimization. This type of cell is parametrized two-dimensionally by one orientation angle, two semi-axis and a corner smoothing parameter. We first analyse their influence on the stress amplification factor by performing some numerical experiments. Second, we compute the optimal corner smoothing parameter for each possible microstructure and macroscopic stress. Then, we average (with specific weights) the optimal smoothing exponent with respect to the macroscopic stress. Finally, to validate the results, we compare our optimal super-ellipsoidal hole with the Vigdergauz microstructure which is known to be optimal for stress minimization in some special cases. This article is part of the theme issue 'Topics in mathematical design of complex materials'.